Separating the real humans from the zombies (DeathMetal.org)

Last year, there was discussion here about the future of the site. We got a number of suggestions, most of them obviously impractical, but also some real ones.

Since that time, myself and a small team have done the following:

* Made a leading Death Metal news source out of this site, and updated our old articles and reviews to a new format that's more flexible;

* Made a leading New Right blog and spread our ideas to a wider community.

This is what it means to do things -- to unite groups based on idea, and further those ideas.

In the meantime, our critics have done -- well, what exactly? There are a number of spinoff sites created angrily by people who had objections to one or more of our honesty policies. All have failed or become assimilated into the same old stuff.

Our way works.

On the other side of actually doing stuff are the typical internet people. They talk big, are very critical, always have grandiose suggestions, etc. but never do anything. Their way has failed.

We're looking for people who aren't defective to work with us as writers for either deathmetal.org or amerika.org. You will join an active team on either site of people who make quality product to be read by smart people.

Internet drama queens and other defectives are being eliminated, as wherever they go, they poison discourse with their negativity. They will be happier at the big forums where they can grandstand for idiots and be acknowledged for their supreme wisdom.

If you are not an internet drama queen, and want to actually walk the walk instead of just typing on the internet, please get in touch with me: prozak -at- deathmetal -dot- org.

In the meantime, our critics have done -- well, what exactly? There are a number of spinoff sites created angrily by people who had objections to one or more of our honesty policies. All have failed or become assimilated into the same old stuff.

I support much of what this site stands for, but dislike many aspects of the direction it's gone in: the esotericism is lost; much of what is being spewed forth on the blog is sub-par crap that wouldn't have been tolerated before the push to "reach a larger audience" (which almost certainly requires new content, granted). I'd like to say that not all of the groups/sites that have branched off from here have "failed" or "become assimilated into the same old stuff", unless "the same old stuff" is code for "examining the heart of Metal, its principles and message". There is much in the works in many places on the web.

Amusingly, one of the biggest successes of the offshoots - hessian.org, and the Hessian Zine - was assimilated into deathmetal.org. How ironic, man!

I don't write much about Metal, at the moment, since I'm not listening to so much. My writings are focused primarily on philosophy/theology, Tradition, "mysticism", psychedelics, and similar (the confines of the human experience, in short).

I honestly don't think there's all that much more that can be said about Metal: it is an instantiation of that essential quality of Man that strives towards, rather than away from, the Unknown, the Sublime, Reality, etc. Thematically - in its spirit - it is a continuation of the perennial philosophy ("what is is"), though many bands have fucked up that expression with their own "opinions", man. The best ones - e.g. Sabbath, Maiden, Morbid Angel, Burzum - if not actively recognising this influence (though Trey and, to a lesser extent, Varg do), at least manage to translate their experiences and interests into the same holistic context.

Sabbath = "yeah that's nice but what about this?", Maiden = "I'm killing for Glory!", MA = "PRAISE THE OLD ONES, DIE BEFORE YOU DIE", Burzum = "time to wake up from this shitty dream...".

There are already so many forums for zombies and drama-queens, that it might be worthwhile to cultivate this one for those who do not fall into those categories. The whole 'uber-man' thing can only gain traction if there are visible examples of what that means. What does it mean, anyway? Maybe it means no more than putting the 'human' back into humans, in defiance of whatever took it away.

Our goal has never changed at the DLA/DMU: treat metal as art, and explicate its inner workings so that it can be understood by the world at large.

When metal became popular back in 1995, the old underground made a fatal mistake: it retreated. Instead of getting in there, calling the newcomers out for the fools they were, and pointing out the obvious falseness of it all, the scene got hipsterized. People retreated into small friend groups and basically let their voices fall silent outside those they already knew.

Not content to repeat that mistake, the DMU is engaging with the mainstream-ish metal because we want to have a voice. We want to have an effect on others, to shape the community, to improve discourse on metal. You don't do that by having a small site which is isolated to all but a select group of people who, if they volunteer, only do so to further advance content for people like them.

You know what we call that?

HIPSTERISM.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to be ideologically coherent; however, once you turn it into dogma, it feeds off itself as a parasite and brings itself down. There is something very wrong with dropping out and assuming that preaching to 150 other disaffected die hards on the internet will somehow make the world turn out in any positive direction at all.

Throughout history, people have made change by going in there and influencing others. That's the name of the game in any era, and it's what we intend to do.

We have not changed our standards; in fact, we've raised them. Before we took over here, this blog was praising three-note underground hipster shit bands that have now receded from memory because they were candy-ass pop or kvlty bullshit that pretended to be profound. They also wrote some great articles, which we have preserved where not sabotaged by the teams themselves.

During that era, this site got an ugly reputation because it attracted autistic-style self-righteous hipster elitists who, with a false definition of elitism (extending quality to obscurity alone), were promoting music that is outright shit and appeals to no one but the flannel-wearing hipsters who have invaded metal.

You don't fight the modern world by withdrawing. You fight it by getting in there and turning the topic of discussion to something intelligent, so that you can capture the 10% of society who can think and teach them what to do.

Hipsterism, like certain fringe political movements, is there as a surrogate for action. It is something to do to pass the time and to make yourself feel important. It doesn't work; it allows the genre you claim to care about to be ravaged, while you play paddy cakes with your hipster friends and think about how cool you are.

Since we've taken over this site again, we've gotten a number of high-profile interviews, reviews and articles out there, and they're getting into the mainstream and influencing people who wouldn't see them at a hipster clique.

Speaking of hipster cliques, all of the spin-offs of this site have failed because they formed little cliques, and then few people came, and then the people behind them gave up and went on to macrame instead so they'd have something to talk about how unique and different they are.

I don't dislike these people; they are talented writers, comrades and friends. But they are wrong in their outlook, and they have read the situation incorrectly, and there is no honorable path in refusing to say that.

Join us... we are the future. Or nurse your wounds with inflated and exaggerated self-importance, isolation and justifications for your own irrelevance. But don't try to hold us back. We will rape your eye sockets.

Our goal has never changed at the DLA/DMU: treat metal as art, and explicate its inner workings so that it can be understood by the world at large.

Good. We're all on the same page then, in theory. Why, then, are you discussing footnotes like Morgengrau, has-beens like Suffocation, and offal like Bloodsoaked? Your actions seem to be against your purpose as stated here. Why is there mention of Neurosis and De Profundis? These are not the heights of Metal; they're barely the mid-points. Stick with Hod, Centurion, Birth A.D., and the music that is actually passably good, otherwise your message about the quality of composition in Metal becomes obscured. Create more articles which explore the relationship between Classical composition and Metal, or between ambient/electronic music and Metal; talk less about average music, even if it is "flavour of the week" or whatever.

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When metal became popular back in 1995, the old underground made a fatal mistake: it retreated. Instead of getting in there, calling the newcomers out for the fools they were, and pointing out the obvious falseness of it all, the scene got hipsterized. People retreated into small friend groups and basically let their voices fall silent outside those they already knew.

Metal was never "popular" (the closest was NWOBHM); pop versions of metal have always been at least moderately popular (stadium rock, glam, nu-metal, screamo, whale metal). Furthermore, there has always been a large amount of distaste emanating from Hessians towards poseurs. It seems to me as if the history of the movement is being rewritten in your post so as to serve the formal changes that have occurred on this website.

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Not content to repeat that mistake, the DMU is engaging with the mainstream-ish metal because we want to have a voice.

Let me translate this for everyone: "we're going to give another platform to substandard music and its fans so that what is truly good can be heard and understood by more people". This is not a problem in the slightest! However, if you aren't going to be open and honest about the motivations and reasons behind such a shift, many - such as myself - are going to be confused by the new bullshit-friendly DLA. In light of this, more recent posts make much more sense, and are far more tolerable.

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We want to have an effect on others, to shape the community, to improve discourse on metal. You don't do that by having a small site which is isolated to all but a select group of people who, if they volunteer, only do so to further advance content for people like them.

Straw man: those who have created small, "isolated" sites have almost certainly done so in order to expand their own group's understanding and appreciation of Metal. People with the DLA's agenda would not do such a thing. You're basically saying "people who aren't doing what we want to do don't do what we want to do".

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There is something very wrong with dropping out and assuming that preaching to 150 other disaffected die hards on the internet will somehow make the world turn out in any positive direction at all.

Again, who actually does this? A lesser or confined web presence does not mean that the person/people involved is/are not doing anything positive; in fact, if they spend less time talking on the internet, it's likely that they're spending more time engaging with the outside world. A point that I have raised countless times which seems never to have been addressed is that you're far more likely to influence people in person than over the internet anyway - as far as my experience of getting people hooked on proper Metal goes, the ratio is something like 8:1 in favour of real-world interaction. It's much easier to say "fuck you, dude!" behind a username than to someone's face (especially if they're 6'4").

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Throughout history, people have made change by going in there and influencing others.

Throughout history, change has occurred when people have become fed up with what they perceive is happening at the moment, causing them to look to smaller, less well-known groups who've got it right (see most philosophical or religious shifts in all cultures across all times).

Before we took over here, this blog was praising three-note underground hipster shit bands

LOLOLOL ILDJARN? In all seriousness, provide examples, please. I have been an avid reader of dm.org both before and after the "takeover", and have never, until recently, found anything unpraiseworthy on the site. It was the height of quality, as was the DLA, and as is much, though not all, of this new incarnation. Don't pretend that the old was somehow worse in order to justify the new.

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During that era, this site got an ugly reputation because it attracted autistic-style self-righteous hipster elitists who, with a false definition of elitism (extending quality to obscurity alone), were promoting music that is outright shit and appeals to no one but the flannel-wearing hipsters who have invaded metal.

THIS NEVER HAPPENED. Where was the LLN worship? I know "obscure-heads" (again, in person!); nothing associated with the DLA ever came close. I've been here for around six years, so granted I don't know all the history, but the quality of output was utterly seemless until recently, when greater quantity almost certainly necessitated a lessened average quality (again, this is not a problem, but it is a fact). This part of your post seems to be completely made up.

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You don't fight the modern world by withdrawing. You fight it by getting in there and turning the topic of discussion to something intelligent, so that you can capture the 10% of society who can think and teach them what to do.

This is good! Make sure you don't sell out on the way. So far, things seem to be going very well: I'd be glad if you could keep this up and make something worthwhile out of it, but the pitfalls are there for all to see but those who are walking straight into them. Remember, the philosopher understands society because he is outside of the game.

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Since we've taken over this site again, we've gotten a number of high-profile interviews, reviews and articles out there, and they're getting into the mainstream and influencing people who wouldn't see them at a hipster clique.

I'd like to see interviews with Graveland, Summoning (once the album's out), or Morbid Angel ("What the fuck happened, guys?" would be a good place to start). I'm sure the guy from Bloodsoaked is a wonderfully nice chap, but why is he being interviewed, except to pay off on his fanbase by forcing a positive outlook on this website through mutual masturbation?

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Join us... we are the future. Or nurse your wounds with inflated and exaggerated self-importance, isolation and justifications for your own irrelevance. But don't try to hold us back. We will rape your eye sockets.

I have a large group of real-life friends with whom I listen to and discuss Metal. I put on and play gigs, and attempt to share my understanding of the genre and related subjects with the people I meet at/around those shows and other "social events". I generally find that, as was common knowledge here only a year ago, the average meatalhead has severely limited faculties when it comes to understanding the deeper aspects of this culture; nevertheless, I persevere, and at the very least I get some of them to listen to good music in lieu of crap music. For those "in the know", I write articles on myriad subjects, but I would never be so hopeful as to assume that the average mundane could understand what the fuck I'm talking about, let alone my friends. At that, I'm consistently surprised at how many random internet-goers actually read what I write and see significance in it.

As far as converting the masses goes, it would seem impossible to have success over the internet, for the following reason: people go to the internet to read what they know. They do not go to be challenged, they do not go in order to think, or to grow: they go so as to find the group they fit into and stay in it. The mechanism that you are employing here is a clever one: alliance followed by annexation, if it'll work (and, given the quality of writing and content, it almost certainly will!). At the same time, in order to forge those alliances, sacrifices must be made, and the first one which has been made is quality. Many of the "old guard" have seen this and commented on it. If you want to throw out the people who know what's up in favour of the people who'll listen to what you say, that's fair enough; even so, a bit of warning would be nice. We've supported you and your endeavours long enough that some amount of courtesy ought be shown, surely. Otherwise, this site has become devoid of honour. Again, this is no criticism: it is to be expected in this age.

As far as converting the masses goes, it would seem impossible to have success over the internet, for the following reason: people go to the internet to read what they know.

Exactly. Hence you give them what they know, and lead off to other more interesting things.

Very few people respond to essays; even fewer still to the Tarditionalist style of "esoteric" essay writing.

It's better to do what we've been using: leverage the news section to bring people into the reviews archive itself and the FAQ/history/philosophy/etc. which alone form the kind of statement about metal that fragmentary essays cannot.

Logged

Phoenix

Speaking of hipster cliques, all of the spin-offs of this site have failed because they formed little cliques, and then few people came, and then the people behind them gave up and went on to macrame instead so they'd have something to talk about how unique and different they are.

I don't dislike these people; they are talented writers, comrades and friends. But they are wrong in their outlook, and they have read the situation incorrectly, and there is no honorable path in refusing to say that.

Join us... we are the future. Or nurse your wounds with inflated and exaggerated self-importance, isolation and justifications for your own irrelevance. But don't try to hold us back. We will rape your eye sockets.

As always, I seem to be out of the loop. There seems to be much drama. Anyways, death metal black metal, I just wanted to say that your words once again ring true and it's inspiring to see a metal website with such high ideals (even if I don't agree with all your beliefs). I hope you don't get bogged down with hipsters, I hope you scale glorious heights...

Regarding the front page, I am of two minds, because while I think most of the bands there are mediocre, it is also something I need so I know what's out there and what to avoid, and then there's cool stuff like Birth AD and Imprecation in with the shit.

You sound bitter about the fact that some people decided that they did not like the direction you took deathmetal.org in. Now you are reaching out to find new writers, when you had a whole slew of people who admired, respected, and wanted to write for, and in collaboration with you.